The upcoming real-time strategy 4X game Dune: Spice Wars announces a third faction. But to the player's surprise, this faction is not the local indigenous Freyman who play a lot of scenes in the film, but rather a group of opportunists and aggressive "smugglers".
Smuggler factions make a living outside the powerful family sphere of influence, and they can infiltrate the settlements of other factions and secretly steal resources. Smugglers are always looking for weak or single enemy units in order to kill them easily and quickly.
Developer Shiro Games said in its introduction to Dune: Spice Wars that smugglers will have territory under their control and start the game near the polar regions. Still, they will soon encounter other factions whose abilities help smugglers infiltrate enemy settlements, profit from underworld deals, and eventually secretly expand their influence.
The basic idea of the Smuggler Faction game style is to optimize economic outcomes and effectively extract profits from resources. Although their units "take some time to heat up" on the battlefield, they perform better in the case of prolonged occupation, as smugglers gradually reduce the supply of enemy troops over the course of battle.
Smugglers are also deadly opportunists, adept at secretly wiping out a squad of enemy units eager to return home after a long battle.
The smugglers are led by Esmar Tuek, an experienced master of espionage with contacts in the Fehmans, the Space Guild, and the Landsard family. His son, Staban, is a shrewd political investigator, while other MPs Lingar Bewt, Drisq and Bannerjee all bring exceptional skill and knowledge.
Dune: Spice Wars will enter early access this year.